Month: July 2020 (Page 2 of 2)

I am a product of the Jesus Movement.  I was a seminary student and a young pastor when the Jesus movement began in California in the late 60’s and early 70’s and than spread throughout the rest of North America and even into Europe.  Like today,  those days were marked by political strife, racial tension, government instability and economic volatility.  I remember embracing the title “Jesus Freak.” 

The movement was also a predecessor of the  charismatic movement, which moved through the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.  I attended large gatherings of believers throughout the 70’s and early 80’s.  God was awakening the whole church to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who had had become “the forgotten member” of the Trinity. 

The movement left its impact on the church.  I witnessed this first hand as a young Lutheran pastor.   There was tension as God was pouring new wine into old wine skins.  Many Jesus people left and formed other churches, while some of us stayed, wanting to be a leaven with the traditional denominations.  I am forever grateful for what God taught my wife and I during those years.  We still treasure “the Scripture Songs” we learned as a family.

I bring up the Jesus Movement because some observers wonder if we are about to experience another Jesus Movement.  Don Whitney notes, “Perhaps no year in modern history so parallels the turmoil of 2020 than 1968……But in retrospect, it’s encouraging to realize that rumbling beneath it all, the Jesus Movement was gathering  momentum as a work of God’s power that would flourish across the country in the years immediately following.”  

Now there was folks reporting on a “beach revival” talking place in Southern California.  Worship leader Sean Faucht, leader of worship during the beach revival believes the church is in a time similar to the late 60’s and 70’s.  “What we’re seeing how  is a return to a gritty, raw Gospel, Jesus people movement foundation,” observes Faucht.  “What it’s doing is stripping off the sheen and the polished nature of what we’ve built in America and it’s allowing us to return to the simplicity of the power of the raw Gospel.”

Wow!  I read of other revivals taking place in other parts of the country, even at the place where George Floyd was murdered.  Could it be that in the midst of all the chaos, conflicting politics and anger, God  is sending awakening.  Could this be “times of refreshing ” from the Lord (Acts 3:19). 

As I write this blog I have several gut responses to the reports of revival.  First and foremost, there is an excitement in my spirit, of another move of God like the 70’s.  It was glorious time to be a “Jesus Freak.”

But secondly, I am reluctant to admit fear and hesitancy getting involved in a move of God’s Spirit that will surely confront the powers of darkness that war against our nation.  Lord, forgive me for my lack of trust in your sovereign power to protect me and my bride during the coming battle for the soul of our nation.   

Thirdly,  I am convicted that I have not prayed in Faith, with my face and hands raised to heaven, crying out, “God has mercy on us.”  Daniel helps me with his prayer, “We do not make requests  of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.  O Lord, listen!  O Lord, forgive!  O Lord hear and act!  For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name” (Dan 9:18-19)

The term “cancel culture” was not part of our national consciousness only a few years ago.  But very quickly free speech and open debate are being called into question.  Biblical views of marriage,  sex and abortion are being met with intolerance.  We are living in a post-Christian culture. Jesus warned us: “Stay alert.  This is hazardous work I’m assigning you.  You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves.  Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove” (Matt 10:18 mgs).

 Concerned about the growing intolerance, 150 high-profile writers of liberal persuasion signed a letter, entitled, “A letter on Justice and Open Debate” published recently in Harper’s Magazine. The letter expressed  a collective concern over a cancel culture.  They warned of “an intolerance of opposing views” that was leading to “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism,” along with the “tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”  

The letter asks for the following to be honored: “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.  We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.  As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.  We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.”

The reaction from the left was rather shift and nasty.  As one observer put it, “the reaction to the letter denouncing cancel-culture demonstrated why a letter  denouncing cancel-culture was necessary in the first place.”  The signatories  were  called “totalitarians in the waiting.”  

I bring up this letter to show conclusively how times have changed.  It is now those who are opposed to a biblical worldview who are intolerant.  In the past it was only the Christians who were accused of being closed minded.

I must confess that after following Jesus for over 60 years, I have mellowed.  As a young Christian  I was more of a fundamentalist in my outlook.  I had my convictions, but out of my insecurity as a person of faith, I was closed to other opinions and perspectives.  As a pastor in a fairly liberal denomination (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) I had to learn to think clearly and articulate a minority view point.

Early on in my ministry I lived with a lot of insincerity about my Christian worldview.  With my  personality, I knew in my heart what I believed, but I had difficulty giving verbal expression to my convictions.  After many years of simply hard work, I was able to combine my head with my heart.  I became a more integrated man, who know what he believed, because it fit with head and heart

Men, it is vital that we live as integrated men,  with our head integrated with our heart.  The truth will need to lived out, in thought and deed.   But it is “hazard work.”  Here is my advise from  my journey.

First,  stand firm on the truth of Scripture.  It is our foundation.  The bible give us an objective view of reality.   Secondly,  learn to integrate your head with your heart.  For me it was getting my head in line with my heart.  For you it might be the other way around.  But get integrated.  Thirdly, you will be shoot at and wounded.   But you need to stay in the fight. Fourthly, listen carefully to others even when it hurts.   Fourthly, when you speak aim at the wounded soul of the other. 

If you want to get a fresh, objective, and unbiased perspective on Western society, it is helpful to see it through the eyes of an informed spiritual leader from the developing nations.  Such a person is Robert Cardinal Sarah from Guinea, West Africa, who was made a archbishop by Pope John Paul II and a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.  In his book “The Day is Now Far Spent” he has a revealing chapter entitled, “Hatred of Man.”

He takes us back to the origin of the hatred of modern man and his very nature.  “At the root,” maintains Sarah “is a mysterious process of fear.”  “Our contemporaries have been convinced that in order to be free, it is necessary for them not to depend on anyone.”  “The modern mistrust of all dependence,” explains Sarah, “explains many ills.”

Other people (including God), become potential enemies.  “Filiation,” the dependence on a father and mother, therefore becomes a hindrance to full freedom.  “This first experience is unbearable for contemporary man, who wishes to be the sole cause of everything that happens to him and of all that he is.”  Receiving is contrary to his dignity.  Sarah thinks it is time to “liberate man from this hatred of all that he has received.”

Sarah sees this as the “death of the father.”  It is an ancient, destructive desire to receive nothing from anyone so as not to owe anyone anything.  Sarah asks, “If a man were deprived of a receiving nature, what meaning would his freedom have?”  At the heart of the hatred of man is the refusal to accept oneself as a creature, who has been created by a loving Creator.

Sarah wonders, “How can we make a lifelong commitment if we suspect the other a priori of not wanting our good?”  The suspicion of a loving God as Creator has “spread throughout human society like a slow, paralyzing poison.”  Our culture is going through a “lethal crisis.”  It has reached the limits of self-destructive hatred.  “The barbarians,” believes Sarah, “are no longer at the city gates… they are in position of influence and in government… Never will I be complicit by my silence in this new ideology of hatred for man and for human nature.”  I agree! 

Men, we see this hatred being expressed in the many riots and mass shootings that are now commonplace.  So many of the young men, both black and white, are expressing their freedom, with no idea of who they really are.  They do not know that they are created and loved by God.  We are, notes Sarah, “in danger of becoming ‘perpetual orphans.’”

Let us celebrate “the Good News” of the Father’s delight in us as men, created in his image to uniquely express our God-given masculinity.  “For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph. 2:10).  There simply cannot be a sense of being and well-being in the soul of man outside of his receiving and knowing this truth in the depths of his soul: “I have a Father in heaven who delights in me.”  

It has taken me a lifetime of trying to walk with the Lord to start grasping the importance of being able to simply receive.  It is a posture of humility and dependence on the Lord.  “I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.  Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,  my soul is a baby content” (Ps. 131:2 MSG). 

Mark Regnerus, a leading Christian sociologist has done extensive research on marriage.  In a recent article he observed  that among many academics, marriage, “is now considered the ‘M’ word, almost in the same category as other dirty words.”  He has found, “the institution of marriage is under severe strain.”

Regnerus warns, “marriage is getting rarer.  Fast.”  It is declining even among conservative Christians.  “Studying the demise of marriage, ” writes Regnerus, “has been live watching a invasive fungus slowly destroy a stately old oak tree.  Despite all this bad news, though, there is reason for hope.  The oak will not perish.  In fact, marriage will increasingly become ‘a Christian thing,’ which means the church will bear increasing responsibility for an institution with an uncertain future.” 

What is expected  of marriage today has changed profoundly, while what marriage  actually offers has not.  Men, he gives us a challenge that we should take to heart.  “It’s time for the church to re-demonstrate to the world what marriage is.  We have on our side a timeless and transcendent motivation for matrimony.  The task is not a glamorous one.  But it just might work.”  The challenge – is our modeling of marriage going to make a difference.  

He wonders if the West is not, “living off the fumes of countless sacrifices” of Christian marriages of the past.  He sees marriage as being, “a corporeal and spiritual act of mercy…..The West’s successes have been built upon this family social structure.”  

After 55 years of marriage and being in the last quarter of our journey, Judy and I can testify to the blessing of  our marriage.  But it has not always been a “bed of roses.”  Marriage is a covenant gift of God. A man and  woman are invited into relationship with the triune God of grace.  But there is a lot of “death and resurrection” in such a covenant.    Russell Moore sees marriage becoming more, “a vehicle of self-actualization” rather than  “self-sacrifice”. 

 I personally praise God for the  gift of my wife and the strength I have found through our life together.  Her support, encouragement and spiritual counsel for her “ragamuffin” husband has been a continually source of thanksgiving to the Lord for my soulmate.  She has been truly “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).  In other words, I would not be who I am in the Lord without my “suitable helper” (Gen. 2:20).    

Regnerus  warns against two trends  that we need to avoid in “this hard-but-hopeful space” of modern marriage in which we have all the “raw materials for reviving marriage.”      

The first trend is among young Christians having, “a high expectations for matrimony and a low tolerance for sacrifice.” Today younger believers see marriage as a capstone on a successful young adult life, rather then a “foundational hallmark of entry into adulthood.”  A capstone puts the finishing on a structure, while a foundation rests on a lot of work.  I agree marriage is sacrifice and work. “In the foundational vision, being newly married and poor was common, expected and difficult, but often temporary.” 

The second trend is expecting too much of a marriage partner.  One psychologist called this the “suffocation model.”  Tim Keller has said, “people are asking far too much in the marriage partner.”  Fewer people are interesting in participating in demands of marriage.  It is more then sharing affection.  Regnerus points out that marriage, “still concerns the mutual provision and transfer of resources  within a formalized sexual union.”  Younger adults shy away from the “specialization and exchange” expected in marriage.  Demand too much without giving and there will be disappointment.